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The Death of Ivan Ilyich: New Translation: Newly Translated and Annotated - Also included The Devil, another celebrated novella by Tolstoy
One of the most exquisitely constructed novellas by Tolstoy is presented alongside The Devil, a further work exploring the powerful and destructive nature of obsession
The judge Ivan Ilyich Golovin has spent his life in the pursuit of wealth and status, devoting himself obsessively to work and often neglecting his family in the process. When, after a small accident, he fails to make the expected recovery, it gradually becomes clear that he is soon to die. Ivan Ilyich then starts to question the futility and barrenness of his previous existence, realizing to his horror, as he grapples with the meaning of life and death, that he is totally alone. Includes pictures and an extensive section on Tolstoy's life and works.
The judge Ivan Ilyich Golovin has spent his life in the pursuit of wealth and status, devoting himself obsessively to work and often neglecting his family in the process. When, after a small accident, he fails to make the expected recovery, it gradually becomes clear that he is soon to die. Ivan Ilyich then starts to question the futility and barrenness of his previous existence, realizing to his horror, as he grapples with the meaning of life and death, that he is totally alone. Includes pictures and an extensive section on Tolstoy's life and works.
192 pages, Paperback
Published December 15, 2013
About the author
Leo Tolstoy
8,652 books29.8k followersLev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Russian: Лев Николаевич Толстой; most appropriately used Liev Tolstoy; commonly Leo Tolstoy in Anglophone countries) was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist fiction. Many consider Tolstoy to have been one of the world's greatest novelists. Tolstoy is equally known for his complicated and paradoxical persona and for his extreme moralistic and ascetic views, which he adopted after a moral crisis and spiritual awakening in the 1870s, after which he also became noted as a moral thinker and social reformer.
His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him in later life to become a fervent Christian anarchist and anarcho-pacifist. His ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You, were to have a profound impact on such pivotal twentieth-century figures as Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.
See also:
French → Léon Tolstoï
Spanish → León Tolstói
His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him in later life to become a fervent Christian anarchist and anarcho-pacifist. His ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You, were to have a profound impact on such pivotal twentieth-century figures as Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.
See also:
French → Léon Tolstoï
Spanish → León Tolstói
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 5, 2023
“He hates her with every inch of his being. And her touch causes an agonizing well of hatred to surge up in him.”
“Death is over,” he said to himself. “There is no more death.”
He drew in a breath, broke off in the middle of it, stretched himself out, and died.
“Death is over,” he said to himself. “There is no more death.”
He drew in a breath, broke off in the middle of it, stretched himself out, and died.
October 13, 2019
"He opened his eyes and glanced at his son. He started to feel sorry for him"
"Take him away... feel sorry... and for you..." He wanted to say "forgive me" as well"
The last few pages, his feeling pity for his son, his asking for forgiveness from his wife reveal to us that Ivan has 'redeemed' himself. He has found peace in death.
The first chapter externalises death. Death of the other. We feel it but, to save ourselves, to protect ourselves, we see it as "not my death". Tolstoy works with this otherness of death very remarkably through people in Ivan's life.
For them, the news of his death is so alien. They are concerned with the promotions etc. Tolstoy forces us to hold this thought in the first chapter and, forces us to come back to it every so often. The promotions, the friends are concerned with, were the very endeavours that Ivan was pursuing. To what end though? What did Tolstoy reduce him to? Shuddering thought!
From there onwards, he creates Ivan's life and destroys it. With what? A fall from the ladder while being consumed with making his house look perfect? So real.
Death is internalised now. We see the stages of dying through Ivan - Denial, bargaining, anger, depression and eventually acceptance.
Death is treated very intimately and so is the idea of authenticity. What is an authentic life? We are forced to witness the "I" of Ivan. Going through the motions of life without questioning, until the tragedy of the fall strikes and the perfect life is in shambles. The "I" still exists. Why me? Why pain? Until he "sees" his son. The "I" disappears.
"Take him away... feel sorry... and for you..." He wanted to say "forgive me" as well"
The last few pages, his feeling pity for his son, his asking for forgiveness from his wife reveal to us that Ivan has 'redeemed' himself. He has found peace in death.
The first chapter externalises death. Death of the other. We feel it but, to save ourselves, to protect ourselves, we see it as "not my death". Tolstoy works with this otherness of death very remarkably through people in Ivan's life.
For them, the news of his death is so alien. They are concerned with the promotions etc. Tolstoy forces us to hold this thought in the first chapter and, forces us to come back to it every so often. The promotions, the friends are concerned with, were the very endeavours that Ivan was pursuing. To what end though? What did Tolstoy reduce him to? Shuddering thought!
From there onwards, he creates Ivan's life and destroys it. With what? A fall from the ladder while being consumed with making his house look perfect? So real.
Death is internalised now. We see the stages of dying through Ivan - Denial, bargaining, anger, depression and eventually acceptance.
Death is treated very intimately and so is the idea of authenticity. What is an authentic life? We are forced to witness the "I" of Ivan. Going through the motions of life without questioning, until the tragedy of the fall strikes and the perfect life is in shambles. The "I" still exists. Why me? Why pain? Until he "sees" his son. The "I" disappears.
May 10, 2019
First Tolstoy fiction I've ever read, and wow. That was good. It would probably do us much good to consider where we see ourselves in his characters.
January 16, 2026
The Devil was a fantastic short story!
June 10, 2025
This is a beautiful, little book. Watching the main character realize he’s spent his life chasing what other people—or society—told him to want, only to fear it’s now too late to change, is heartbreaking. It’s a bit on-the-nose at times, but still a powerful read. A message many of us still need to hear today.
March 16, 2026
Tolstoy does an amazing job of not only writing the story but capturing the reader in such a way that you wouldn't even notice you've finished the book. It really is a story that makes you think about your life, question a lot of things, and makes you ask yourself how exactly do you want to live? Ivan Ilyich's lingering but painful death brings you to reflect and rethink your own life, as you watch this man suffer more with every day that comes. This novella is truly a masterpiece of not only writing but art in how it grasps the concepts of death and meaningfulness. Tolstoy's work leaves you feeling unsettled, but yet still somehow rewarded.
September 20, 2023
I appreciated the complex emotions that come from realizing we leave the world as we come into it—alone, no matter who is at our side when we make our grand entrance/exit from this plane of existence.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 1, 2014
No wonder Tolstoy is Tolstoy.
May 18, 2020
deardfull
December 4, 2021
3.5
Wouldn’t recommend this translation however.
Wouldn’t recommend this translation however.
September 11, 2022
Heaps good. Death and stuff
December 1, 2022
Two short books in one, the first an examination of death and the other of a life that a man cannot bear reconcile himself with. Both very interesting examinations of the human life and mind.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews